Overview of changes to rewards credit cards in 2017

Coles have provided us a statement which will be good news for cardholders of the Coles Rewards MasterCard, indicating they have no plans to make any changes to the card as a result of the RBA interchange legislation.

A Coles spokesperson gave us this statement:

Coles is not making any changes to the way flybuys members earn or redeem points as a result of the new cap on interchange fees. flybuys remains free to join and members earn points on every dollar spent at Coles, as well as on purchases from partner retailers.

And then, more generally:

Point accumulation can also be accelerated by taking advantage of frequent bonus point offers and by signing up for a Coles Credit Card or taking out Coles Comprehensive Car, Coles Home Insurance or Coles Landlord Insurance policy. Points can be redeemed for a huge range of rewards, from $10 off your shopping at Coles to gift cards from partner retailers and travel from flybuys travel.

How long this is valid for, we can’t say. But that gives some certainty for the near future at least, and leaves the Coles Rewards MasterCard as a strong points-earner, with an effective earn rate of 0.87 Velocity Points or 0.8 Etihad Guest miles per dollar after transferring them from flybuys.

Round-up of changes announced so far

We’ve tried to round up a list of all the banks that have made changes this year – and then incorporated those changes into our Cards Table, which shows all of the earn rates for rewards cards on the market in Australia going forward. The Cards Table is now showing future points earn rates, rather than current earn rates, for cards that are changing, along with identifying the date that any changes are occurring.

This guide should hopefully also become a watchlist for cards or rewards programs which haven’t yet made any changes but might do so in future.

As a result it is likely that cards issued directly by American Express will offer a stronger rewards offering than competitors in the future – or at least maintain their existing set of benefits relative to other banks.

We’ll continue to update this summary over time as new changes are announced.

Coles confirm no immediate changes to their flybuys credit cards was last modified: August 9th, 2017 by Keith

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Keith started Point Hacks in 2011 to help people earn more points and use them better by sharing frequent flyer tips, deals and reviews.
You’ll find Keith writing and managing Point Hacks full time in Sydney’s Northern Beaches - unless he's travelling.

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Hi Keith the cards points table seems to reflect current position not after proposed changes. For example on 16 June the effective earn rate of Krisflyer points for Citi Prestige will be .4. The table still reflect .5

In your post above it says proposed changes are incorporated-is that correct?

Hi
Can anybody help me with this inquiry? I’m building a house and will need to pay about $400K to the builder in stages and if I pay with my Visa it will cost me 1.5% extra which is a lot of money if I want to collect points. I was wondering if there is some way that I can get out of the 1.5% surcharge by buying a Visa prepaid and then using that as a balance transfer or some other message that someone knows of? Any ideas would be really welcomed. Luciana

There’s no way to really reduce this surcharge using a prepaid Visa as they mostly have an accompanying load fee, and then they will charge you 1.5% for accepting that anyway. You could give them the prepaid Visas as payment but I doubt they would like that 🙂

When it comes to earning points out of these transactions, a 1.5% surcharge really limits your options. You could try and negotiate on the surcharge, and/or just ensure you are using the highest points earning Visa / MasterCard as possible to make the surcharge work (check out the cards table for our list of earn rates) – however I can’t think of one off the top of my head that I’d be willing to pay 1.5% on that has no points cap. Or you could work with them to try and take American Express, or consider using RewardPay to pay them using Amex – at a higher surcharge, but with more points earned to offset it.

Diners Club Branded Card for spend on Eligible Transactions will decrease from 1.5 Frequent Flyer Diners Club Points per Australian dollar to 1.25 Frequent Flyer Diners Club Points per Australian dollar

World Mastercard® Card for spend on Eligible Transactions will decrease from 1 Frequent Flyer Diners Club Point per Australian dollar to 0.5 Frequent Flyer Diners Club Points per Australian dollar

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2017 is continuing to see large-scale adjustment of bank rewards programs and credit card points earn rates, thanks to the changes announced by the RBA last year. Coles have provided us a statement which will […]